Saratoga Farmers’ Market

Ideal Dairy Farms. Photo provided

Labors of Love: A Tale of Two Farms and One Local Store

Argyle Cheese Farmers' owners Dave & Marge Randles.

WRITTEN BY HIMANEE GUPTA

PHOTOS BY PATTIE GARRETT UNLESS NOTED

On Memorial Day morning, I drove out to Hudson Falls, NY, a tiny, house-packed community between Fort Edward, Argyle, and Glens Falls. On Burgoyne Avenue, one of the town’s main streets, I shared space with tractors and pick-up trucks bearing American flags. A red, white, and blue OPEN flag waved outside the Argyle Cheese Farmer store. I pulled into the parking lot and went inside. The store is a partnership between Ideal Dairy Farms and Argyle Cheese Farmer. It opened in what was the Lewis Super grocery in May 2020, under tight COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Now, in full operation, it is a farm store, cheese making facility and kitchen, and educational site rolled into one.

Ideal Dairy Farms. Photo provided

In the main retail area, doors to refrigerated display cases slide open for shoppers to select cheeses, yogurts, meats, frozen pizzas, pizza dough, cheesecakes, and milk. Visitors can fill a milk crate with goods as they shop. Alongside the chilled spaces are shelves holding breads, crackers, brownies, maple syrup, honey, spice blends, and coffee. Most of the products are locally produced, many by vendors at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market: Something’s Brewing coffee, Hepatica Farms chicken, and Argyle Cheese Farmer itself. Behind the shopping area is the processing facility and a space that is a little like a small museum. The processing facility is closed off for sanitation purposes but features large windows that allow visitors to watch Ideal Dairy’s milk being transformed into Argyle Cheese Farmer’s cheese and the A2 milk that some of Ideal Dairy’s cows produce being bottled for retail sale. Along the walls are placards featuring photos and histories of the families, the farms, and transformations in local agriculture that created the store. Visitors can sign up for farm tours and scan QR codes that link to videos. Dave and Marge Randles, owners of Argyle Cheese Farmer; and John Dickinson, owner of Ideal Dairy Farms formed the partnership to grow their businesses and support one another. The partnership, however, is about much more than business. In Marge Randles’ words, “It is a labor of love,” involving money, of course, but less about making money, than about spreading goodwill. Her words capture the spirit of farming as it evolves in our region. The store, like the farmers behind it, is about love: Love for the farm, other farmers, the community, and the people – locals as well as out-of-town visitors – it serves.

HISTORIC ROOTS

Ideal Dairy Farms traces its roots to 1884 when John L. Dickinson began operating the farm by day and working the locks at a nearby Feeder Canal at night. He and his son began delivering milk door-to-door in 1908. Through the 1960s to 1980s, the farm provided milk to supermarkets and door-to-door customers in Saratoga, Washington, Warren, and Essex counties. The dairy industry started to change in the 1980s, forcing many smaller operations to either get big or get out. Ideal Dairy shut down its dairy operations in 1987. Then, five years later, John Dickinson – great-grandson of John L. – returned with his wife Denise to the family farm. They brought with them a registered herd of Holsteins. John and Denise grew their herd, focusing on quality genetics and producing milk for wholesale distributors. Their cousins Kyle and Luke Getty and daughter Crystal Grimaldi joined the farm in the first two decades of the 2000s. By 2020, Ideal Dairy was a 3,000-cow operation with quality milk. However, because of its focus on wholesale production, it did not have the name recognition among local residents that it once had. Argyle Cheese Farmer began as a livestock operation in 1862, when Dave G. Randles, great-grandfather of current owner Dave, bought a 117-acre farm in Argyle and raised sheep, pigs, chickens, horses, oxen, and cows. That farm became a full dairy operation under Dave’s grandfather Joe Sr., and father Joe Jr. The current generation’s Dave and his brother Will began managing the farm with their father in the 1970s.

In the early 2000s, the farm’s focus began to shift away from producing milk to making cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products. Marge Randles, wife of Dave, suggested they build a processing facility and distribute the products directly to customers through the Saratoga Farmers Market and other such venues. The couple began bringing their products to the Saratoga market in 2007 and gained a loyal following from customers. Changes in the dairy industry made it increasingly expensive for the Randles to produce their own milk. As Dave and Marge Randles shifted their focus to making cheese, Will Randles took over the family herd and provided the milk. When Will sold the herd, Dave and Marge began acquiring milk from other farms, Ideal Dairy, among them. Lewis Super was formed in 1949 by Peggy and Ed Lewis. It was a room in their home until 1965 when they moved the store to Burgoyne Avenue in Hudson Falls. Their son Emmy with his wife Debbie took over the grocery in 1998 and maintained its presence as an independent communitybased business, unattached to any national corporate grocery chain. In 2019, the couple decided to retire. Hudson Falls faced the loss of its store. Until the Randles and Dickinson came up with a plan to buy the building and re-make Lewis Super into the Argyle Cheese Farmer Store, with Ideal Dairy’s name on the storefront and most of the labels of Argyle Cheese Farmer’s products. Through the partnership, Ideal Dairy became the exclusive supplier of Argyle Cheese Farmer’s milk, and Argyle Cheese Farmer with its high level of local name recognition became the vehicle by which Ideal Dairy could build a new level of community familiarity for its milk. The two formed a partnership and in May 2020 opened the store.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Dickinson’s daughter Crystal designed the placards that relay much of the three family stories, and their role in shaping the agricultural heritage of the area. But there is another aspect of farm culture in the enterprise, as well. It can be found in the commercial kitchen, where many newer Argyle Cheese Farmer products are made. When I visited the store for the first time in February, Something’s Brewing owner Beth Trattel who also works at the store took me into the kitchen. There, I found workers making pizza dough, cheesecakes, macaroni and cheese, and pizzas to go. “The kitchen spun out of an idea of using everything,” Trattel said. “Farmers repurpose. Nothing goes to waste.” Whey, a byproduct from making cheese, goes into the pizza dough and baked breads. Yogurt nearing its expiration date is cooked into cheesecakes. Milk and cheese curds go into mac-and-cheese; pizzas made with the dough, cheeses, and other toppings are flash frozen for baking at home. Marge Randles oversees the kitchen, drawing on recipes she’s developed over the years. “I make things I like,” she says. “It is not cheap, but it is all-natural and made from our products and those from local farms.” I did not have any purchases in mind when I visited the store on Memorial Day. But as I looked into the refrigerated display cases, one of my favorite summer dishes – skillet pizza topped with garlic and greens – popped into my mind. I had the garlic and the greens. Argyle Cheese Farmer had the pizza dough, mozzarella cheese, and a nicely aged sharp cheddar from its kitchen. I filled a milk crate with the items and headed home, promising myself to come back often. SS

Finding Food & Community

at the Saratoga Farmers' Market

WRITTEN BY HIMANEE GUPTA | PHOTO BY PATTIE GARRETT

If you’re new to Saratoga, a long-time resident, or a shortterm visitor, you’ll find a place to call home at the Saratoga Farmers' Market. The market is at High Rock Park, just below Broadway in downtown Saratoga. It takes place twice a week from summer through October: Wednesdays, 3-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. While it is one of many farmers markets in the region, it carries a sense of community that makes it particularly special. To get a sense of that community spirit, let’s step behind the scenes for a minute: It is 8:15 a.m., the first Saturday in June. Some vendors have been on site since 7:30; others are just arriving. A farmer, in an SUV, pulls into the park’s south pavilion. She is heading more toward the center but quickly sees that a tight space between two posts has become even tighter with tables, signage, and bodies by the path. “I’m not going to make it through,” the farmer exclaims. “You’ll make it,” says another, as still another drops what they’re doing to help navigate a path. “Are you sure?” “My truck can get through that spot,” a third vendor, one who makes breakfast sandwiches, says. “Wanna drive this for me?” The farmer gets through, parks in her allotted spot, and starts pulling her tent, tables, coolers, and produce bins from the SUV. Meanwhile, a vendor driving a van pulls in and parks beside her. As she opens a door, pies spill out. Several drop what they’re doing to rescue the pies. Many offer to buy the damaged pies to help the vendor offset any losses. “No, have them,” the pie maker says, with a laugh. “We’ll get through all this together.” That sense of getting through life’s daily disasters together helps make the market what it is as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is a producers-only market, meaning that the items available for purchase were grown, raised, or made by the vendors at the market. The vendors also are local, with their businesses based within a 50mile radius of downtown Saratoga. They join the market as members, and through work-share agreements take responsibility for the market’s upkeep, operation, and community presence. A new partnership this year with the Greenwich-based food-rescue organization Comfort Food Community is helping to expand the market’s community presence further. Through the partnership, which also includes the Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan (CDPHP), members of Comfort Food Community are distributing $5 food vouchers at the market every other week to individuals who meet eligibility guidelines. Comfort Food Community also is collecting food donations from vendors, which is helping to sustain and expand a longstanding partnership between the Saratoga Farmers' Market and the Franklin Community Center’s food pantry. The market had been at High Rock Park every summer since 1978. The COVID-19 pandemic and construction on a new City Center parking garage forced the market to hold its 2020 outdoor season at the Wilton Mall. Ongoing pandemic restrictions kept the market at the mall until midJuly 2021. Vendors and market regulars were looking forward to the market’s return to High Rock Park for a full season this year, until word came in mid-April that construction on the Saratoga Greenbelt Project would make the park inaccessible for much of the summer. Then, however, city officials who recognized the market’s role in the community stepped in. Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim negotiated with the project’s contractor to speed up work on the Greenbelt so the market could return to High Rock as soon as possible. On that first Saturday in June, Mayor Kim arrived at the market a few minutes before the market’s opening bell was to ring at 9 a.m., heralding the market’s return to High Rock. Vendors met him in the central pavilion with a gift basket and words of thanks. And then came a group photo. The photographer instructed “On the count of three, put your hand up with a fist and say, “Farmers' Market!’” The vendors complied and a new year was heralded in. See you at the market : ) SS

From Souvenirs to Décor

Don’t leave town without these!

TAILGATE AND PARTY

33 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs tailgateandparty.com 518-886-9015

Race Themed Tumblers $24.99

Fun Saratoga Themed Tumblers $24.99

DEJONGHE

470 Broadway, Saratoga Springs djoriginals.com | 518-587-6422

Jockey and Racing Horse Charm

Add this equestrian to a classic charm bracelet or hang from a chain as a pendant.Created by hand in downtown Saratoga Springs. Available in 14k yellow or white gold.